Cherry Curtains and Bad Medicine
by Durotos
Summary: "He began to wonder if it was some sort of game she played, if causing her friends to continually cheat death was some sort of thrill she got as she grew bored in her immortal spectral form. Or perhaps she wished for them to keep her permanent company as ghosts themselves?" In which Vayne confronts Pamela. Written as a Commission for SaoirseParisa!


Vayne hated the curtains in the library.

They were made from a bright pink fabric covered with a cherry print and trimmed in lace. He let the material slip through his fingers with a sigh. He could remember climbing that rickety old ladder to hang them "perfectly centered so the sunlight can catch their cuteness". In the time he had seen them prominently displayed, he had swiftly grown to despise them, not only because they were gaudy, but because they reminded him of another time he had been bullied into holding his tongue.

It couldn't be that bad to tell her what he really thought. After all, some of – well, _most_ of – Pamela's ideas and unscrupulous methods had been a danger to him and to others. He looked at a cart of tidy library books with a guilty frown. They were no doubt sorted by the timid monster that was eager to help out every evening – the same creature Pamela had insisted they "take care of".

Indeed, safety was no longer a concern to her. Why would it be, after all? She was a ghost; it wasn't as if she had to deal with physical consequences of her actions…

And here Vayne was now, nervously watching her from around the corner of the library. She had done it yet again – endangered the lives of the mortals around her. He began to wonder if it was some sort of game she played, if causing her friends to continually cheat death was some sort of thrill she got as she grew bored in her immortal spectral form. Or perhaps she wished for them to keep her permanent company as ghosts themselves? He shivered at the very thought; it wasn't something he would put past her.

He stared at the spirit, watching her lavender hair fluttering and hovering midair as she shook her head and muttered, returning the book in her hand to the shelf. When not coercing him into her usual shenanigans, she looked rather benign. As her shoulders slumped, he felt the familiar guilt settle in that had been plaguing him for the past couple of days.

Yes, the medicines Pamela had been brewing were making people very sick, but Vayne worried if he had gone too far in telling her to stop making them completely.

"Pamela… looks so sad…" His voice was soft as he peered around the edge of the library counter, jamming his hands into his pockets.

A soft touch at his shoulder settled the butterflies fluttering about in his stomach. "I'm sure she'll cheer up once you apologize to her," Jessica whispered.

He gave her a small nod. She was right – this needed to be done. He looked over at the table occupied by his classmates as they were absorbed in their studies.

"It's not just about her feelings," his friend reminded him, "you need to do this for yourself."

He gave her a rueful smile as he rubbed the crook of his neck. She would undoubtedly prefer that he stop moping around. "Our project is due in Zeppel's class tomorrow. You just want to make sure you have a sharp partner for it, huh?" His eyes widened in horror as he covered his mouth with his hand; he hadn't meant to say those words aloud.

Jessica's eyes narrowed, but he caught a smirk playing at the corner of her mouth. "Something like that. See, it's not so hard to say how you really feel, is it? Besides…" she continued, giving his shoulder a playful nudge, "life's too short to hold grudges."

 _Life's too short…_

Vayne felt his blood run cold. The fact that his best friend was terminally ill often kept him awake at night. He swallowed the lump in his throat. "Jess…"

She saw the heaviness in his heart and she quickly averted her eyes, giving his arm another shove to mask her own guilt at making him worry. "Well, are you going to go and apologize to Pamela or not?"

Vayne stiffened his posture. "Alright, I'm going to do this."

He didn't notice as Jessica sat back down at their friends' table, unable to focus on the books in front of her, silently sending her friend well wishes for strength and wishing he had more of a backbone.

Vayne stepped around the corner and approached the ghost. "Pamela, I wanted to apologize…"

She turned around and looked at him with wide violet eyes, hugging her teddy bear to her chest as if it were a shield. At the word _apologize_ , she lifted the bear to cover all but her eyes, which had doubled in size.

"Y-yes?" Her tremulous soft voice made her sound very small and Vayne gulped.

 _Jess is right – I need to do this for myself._

"Yes. I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings the other day, I-"

"You were really mean, you know!" she interrupted. Her voice came out in a whine as she threw her arms around her teddy bear to comfort herself. "I was just trying to help, and you wanted to spoil my fun!"

His usual response was to shy away, but he surprised himself as he quickly jumped back into the conversation. "Pamela, people were getting very sick… Roxis only just got out of the infirmary today. I _had_ to say something." His eyes rested on the cherry printed curtains and he felt a small thrill as a wave of adrenaline coursed through his veins. "More people were going to get sick! This is about more than just the other day. You just can't do whatever you want without thinking of others! And… you shouldn't walk all over them either!" he added.

She flinched at his words. They were firm, and there was a trace of annoyance in them. Pamela blinked; this wasn't the usual Vayne she knew. "I took some of the medicine myself!" she pointed out. " _I_ didn't get sick!"

He didn't lift his eyes as he nervously rubbed his arm. Did he have to spell it out for her? "Well, that's… that's because you're a…"

"I'm a _what_?" Pamela persisted, placing her hands on her hips.

"You're a _ghost_." Anna's cool voice startled them both.

Vayne looked at her in amazement; he wasn't expecting his friend to jump in and defend him.

It seemed Pamela wasn't expecting this, either. The corners of her mouth turned downward. "Yeah, so?"

"So you can't get killed by drinking something dangerous." Nikki stepped around the corner, folding her arms across her chest.

"I was only trying to help!" Pamela reminded her.

"I can assure you that taking that medicine was anything but helpful," Roxis replied coldly, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Vayne nervously rubbed the back of his neck. While his friend's words were true, Roxis had a way of saying just the right thing to hurt someone's feelings.

Pamela shook her head and stuffed her face into her teddy bear. "Why is everyone picking on me?" Despite the muffling of her voice, it threatened to rise up into a wail as it often did when she was upset.

"No one is trying to pick on you," Nikki replied, "Roxis here just isn't tactful."

He shot her a sour look but she ignored it.

Pamela squeezed her teddy bear. "Well, I wasn't trying to hurt anyone. I'm sorry things ended up the way they did. Sometimes I forget that I'm a ghost and I'm not affected the same way as you guys are." She looked at Vayne. " And I'm sorry I can be so headstrong. It's just that as the years pass, the students leave and I'm always here. It's so lonely being left behind all the time." Her eyes filled with tears. "I bet you don't want my help anymore, do you?"

Vayne felt a familiar warm touch at his shoulder and he caught Jessica's pink hair in his peripheral vision.

"Maybe we all can work together to create a medicine." The words slipped out easily as Vayne gave Pamela a hopeful look. "And maybe we could make something as potent as your potion, Pamela… just with different effects."

Her eyes lit up. "So you don't mind if I help?"

He gave her a small smile. "Of course you can help. After all, this is going to be a big project. We can make something that can cure any kind of illness!" His eyes blazed with tenacity.

" _Anything_?" A distinct scoff could be heard in Roxis's voice.

"I doubt we have the materials available to us to make something that potent," Anna admitted.

But it was too late to convince Flay otherwise. "Alright, my minions! A new quest has come to us! Back to the workshop to commence _Operation: Cure-All_!"

He led the way with a shrugging Nikki and sighing Roxis as Anna pulled along a curious Muppy who was not-so-subtly asking Pamela for the recipe for her dangerous concoction. All was right again with the hodgepodge group of friends Vayne had managed to make at Al-Revis Academy. Noisy, rambunctious, and chaotic – he supposed it really wouldn't be any other way, and Vayne found that he didn't really mind.

Jessica turned toward him with a smile. "Hey, you did it. You did well."

She was met with a weak chuckle in return. "I don't know about all of that. I feel like I didn't do much of anything."

She shifted her bag on her shoulder. "You stood up for yourself. You didn't let Pamela bully you and you told her that she needs to think of other people besides herself."

Vayne wrung his hands. "Ah, when you say it like that, it sounds like I was kind of mean…"

Jess shook her head, her lips forming a surprised letter _o_. "No, not at all! She needed to think about how her actions were affecting others." She paused and Vayne noticed she suddenly became very interested in the texture of the floor. "Hey, Vayne… did you really mean what you said about wanting to make a cure all?"

"Of course."

Her eyes were obscured by her thick bangs. "Did you say that… because of me?" Vayne jumped a bit when she let out a strained giggle. "Huh, I guess that was pretty selfish of me to think that. Sorry! Forget about it!" Embarrassed, her cheeks flushed to a deep pink as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and hurried to catch up with her friends. She let out a squeak of surprise as Vayne caught her by the wrist, pulling her back.

His eyes were on hers, the earnestness in them catching her off guard. "That's exactly why I said it. I promise we'll find you a cure someday, Jess."

She had seen that burning intensity before as he stood over the cauldron, as he protected his friends from danger while foraging for ingredients…..

"After all, you're my best friend."

Jessica wasn't exactly sure why she felt like crying happy tears as she fell into step with him on their way back to the workshop. It wasn't just that he had stood up for himself and declared how important to him she was. Perhaps it was that she was seeing that shy, bumbling, quiet boy slowly becoming a little less afraid of who he was as a person.


End file.
